1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to financial management systems and, more specifically, to data processing methodology for effecting an improved capital structure in financial institutions.
2. Description of the Prior Art
A number of financial management systems have been proposed in the past. Exemplary systems include U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,194,242; 4,232,367; 4,321,672; 4,346,442 and 4,376,978. However, such prior systems address substantially different problems and accordingly, are substantially different from the inflation-adjusting program of the present invention.
During times of inflation, lenders and borrowers, whether they be institutions or individuals, must anticipate what the effects of inflation will be on the cash flow characteristics of a loan. Investors face a similar uncertainty. Traditionally, lenders compensate for this uncertainty by including a premium in the interest rate charged on the loan. This premium represents what the lender feels will be the level of inflation during the term of the loan.
Loans which include a fixed inflation compensation factor are not immune to the effects of inflation. For example, when a lender anticipates a 6% annual inflation over the life of a loan and the actual average inflation turns out to be 10%, the lender has realized a 4% annual loss in terms of real dollars. In addition, standard-fixed-payments loans ("SFPM's") exhibit a progressive decline with time in terms of the flow of real dollars leading to a real-payment forward "tilt" characterized by a much greater equity accumulation during the early years of an extended loan. Conventional SFPM's are particularly burdensome in an inflationary environment in that they fail to account for appreciation of the mortgaged property.
In an attempt to compensate for such an eventuality, some lenders have offered loans or mortgages which include a floating interest factor that is periodically varied in some manner to compensate for the effects of inflation. One such alternative mortgage instrument is the adjustable rate mortgage, or ARM, which allows for periodic adjustment of payments to compensate for what the lender feels will be the inflationary effect on the loan during the upcoming period. For example, a typical ARM is indexed to a standard interest rate such as a particular bank's prime rate or six-month Treasury bill average. However, due to the fact that ARM's still reflect the market's "expectation" of the inflation rate, their inflation premiums may still not reflect the actual rate of inflation.
Two mortgage loan instruments which are directly indexed to inflation have been offered on a limited basis. One such instrument is the price-level adjusted mortgage, or PLAM, whose mortgage balance is periodically adjusted to account for the effects of inflation during the interval since the previous adjustment. PLAM's have generally been indexed to one of the various consumer price indexes. Such indexing of the PLAM loan balance results in the deferral and capitalization of additional interest. The resulting PLAM loan serves to even out equity accumulation during the life of the mortgage in contrast to SFPM's.
Another indexed mortgage instrument is the "modified" PLAM which combines some aspects of the traditional fixed rate mortgage with those of the PLAM. In particular, the modified PLAM has a fixed interest rate which includes a specified inflation factor and, in addition, has a variable interest rate which will compensate the lender for inflation over and above the specified inflation factor.
Inflation-indexed loan instruments have advantages in that inflation risk to the lender is minimized. For example, with SFPM's during periods of inflation, the borrower realizes a windfall in terms of actual dollars where the loan rate is based on a low level of anticipated inflation. Converselly, the lender has suffered a loss in terms of real dollars. Inflation indexed loans serve to solve this problem. However, the borrower under such instruments still faces much uncertainty: when inflation spirals, so do the loan payments. If inflation operates similarly on the mortgaged or secured property, there is no loss in terms of real dollars. However, if the value of the property securing the loan does not inflate at the same rate as the loan balance, there is potentially an inflation loss.
Such problems have in the past prevented large-volume or commercial borrowers from taking advantage of inflation-indexed loans. That is, the uncertainty over whether the return on inflation-indexed borrowed funds which have been reinvested, will compensate for the "cost" of those funds. This problem of unbalanced investments and loans is seen most accutely where one wishes to invest in a manner that will assure an inflation-adjusted return on the investment. One answer would be for institutions to accept investment capital into deposit accounts which insure an inflation-adjusted return on the deposited funds. However, the risk to the lending institution is clear: such inflation-adjusted deposit accounts must in some manner be backed by inflation-adjusted dollars. Equally important, institutions engaged in lending and borrowing funds require the ability to match funds which have been obtained on an inflation-indexed basis with some similarly indexed funds which are lent out. Moreover, such institutions require the ability to assess the impact of inflation-adjusted deposit and loan accounts on their capital structure.
Accordingly, the present invention addresses these problems by providing a system for implementing inflation indexed deposit accounts, for matching such accounts with similarly indexed loan accounts and for anticipating the effects of these accounts on the existing capital structures of the institution or investor.